My 3DO needs halp

[BoneSnapDeez]

Alright listen up!!!

I have a once-glorious 1993 Panasonic FZ-1 R.E.A.L. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer that decided to start shitting the bed.

Here's the deal. Half the time I insert a game it gets spit back out. Eventually on the third or fourth try things get rolling. Sort of.

No matter the game, performance will degrade as I continue playing. Load times begin to feel stuttery and glitchy, and eventually games will straight up freeze and the disc will be spit out.

Another odd thing: music tracks will sometimes overlap. Like if I enter a new level the music from the last one will continue playing for a good thirty seconds or so. It's quite odd.

I can still "play" games in some sense but it's awkward and not feasible for the long term. Just for yucks, I decided to test my discs (I own like five 3DO games) by making disc images and booting them with 4DO. No problems there.

What am I looking at here? A cleaning? Repair? A whole new system (I've heard some other models are more reliable)???

[CRTGAMER]

Clean the disc first. If no luck then maybe the Laser Eye wearing out? Clean the eye gently with air duster and clean dry QTip. The old plastic in the lens might not even like alcohol. Do not use a disc cleaner, the brushes whacking against the laser eye definitely not good. Last resort is to kick up the signal to the laser adjusted internally, but that could shorthen or kill the laser.

[Thierry Henry]

Get a new laser. They're not too expensive.

The FZ-1 and FZ-10 models have the same laser.

[nightrnr]

It's too bad that the USB for 3DO is so expensive. I have one, as I didn't want to even mess with the drives on the aging and obscure system.
But really, who am I kidding? I look for drive alternative for every disc based system.

I keep wondering why the guy charges $165 for the Goldstar USB and $235+ for the FZ-1. Both are more or less plug and play.

Good luck whatever path you choose for the 3DO.

[Jagosaurus]

It's too bad that the USB for 3DO is so expensive. I have one, as I didn't want to even mess with the drives on the aging and obscure system.
But really, who am I kidding? I look for drive alternative for every disc based system.

I keep wondering why the guy charges $165 for the Goldstar USB and $235+ for the FZ-1. Both are more or less plug and play.

Good luck whatever path you choose for the 3DO.

Geeze, you have me looking into this again . I just posted a couple questions over in the main flash cart/ODE thread about it.

Why am I obsessed with beating Lucienne's Quest on actual hardware!?

Bonez, the Optical Disc Emulator runs between $195 & $265. Pricey but you'll never have to worry about the drive & sure you can fit the library on a 64GB USB stick, or most of it. Supports up to 2TB USB HDDs. I'm thinking about it :/

[nightrnr]

For years, I swore that I would never get this system.
Then one day I saw a decent deal on a Goldstar and finally caved.

The disc player actually worked (what little I tested), but wouldn't wait for you to put the disc in before it would close up again. I was like "oh hell no" when it tried to eat my Deathkeep.
Can't remember if I ordered USB 3dO before or after that near catastrophic incident.

I mostly wanted it for the 2 D&D games, but I've since really liked diving into the library.
I even did a Doom playthrough (I'm waiting for someone to do an overhaul of the released source code to bring it to more playable standards and add more levels).
I have 2 different official controllers, a Tototek playstation adapter, and an SNES adapter for it now. Love the thing.

That said, many 3DO games have ports on other systems. It's really only worth it if the era intrigues you, I think. I may even decide to sort my disc images by PS1, Saturn, Jaguar, Multiplat, and exclusives.

I can recommend the oft despised Goldstar systems for the USB route. Poor CD drive, but works great otherwise.

[Jagosaurus]

For years, I swore that I would never get this system.
Then one day I saw a decent deal on a Goldstar and finally caved.

The disc player actually worked (what little I tested), but wouldn't wait for you to put the disc in before it would close up again. I was like "oh hell no" when it tried to eat my Deathkeep.
Can't remember if I ordered USB 3dO before or after that near catastrophic incident.

I mostly wanted it for the 2 D&D games, but I've since really liked diving into the library.
I even did a Doom playthrough (I'm waiting for someone to do an overhaul of the released source code to bring it to more playable standards and add more levels).
I have 2 different official controllers, a Tototek playstation adapter, and an SNES adapter for it now. Love the thing.

That said, many 3DO games have ports on other systems. It's really only worth it if the era intrigues you, I think. I may even decide to sort my disc images by PS1, Saturn, Jaguar, Multiplat, and exclusives.

I can recommend the oft despised Goldstar systems for the USB route. Poor CD drive, but works great otherwise.

Do any of the games the games that give the Goldstar issues normally run better via USB? That'd be cool. There's only a few IIRC.

[nightrnr]

So, far, I don't quite know yet.

According to my searching, the only games are Cyberia, PO'ed, and The Horde, which supposedly lock up at a certain point in game due to file size limitations in early model Goldstar systems. I don't know if it is a sure thing that the Game will freeze, or just likely. Nor do I know if my Goldstar is affected.

I'll keep you posted...

Of the 3, I am most concerned with the Horde. But my gaming habits tell me I more likely to play PO'ed first. I think I have a Pal image of the game, which plays fine (nothing weird about video or game speed).

All 3 games are available on other systems anyways, so for me the Goldstar was/is worth the lower cost value.

I also hear that Casper has issues on Goldstar (stuttering audio/video; as related by videogamecritic). Seems to run fine on mine, so I think that was just a drive limitation.

[Jagosaurus]

So, far, I don't quite know yet.

According to my searching, the only games are Cyberia, PO'ed, and The Horde, which supposedly lock up at a certain point in game due to file size limitations in early model Goldstar systems. I don't know if it is a sure thing that the Game will freeze, or just likely. Nor do I know if my Goldstar is affected.

I'll keep you posted...

Of the 3, I am most concerned with the Horde. But my gaming habits tell me I more likely to play PO'ed first. I think I have a Pal image of the game, which plays fine (nothing weird about video or game speed).

All 3 games are available on other systems anyways, so for me the Goldstar was/is worth the lower cost value.

I also hear that Casper has issues on Goldstar (stuttering audio/video; as related by videogamecritic). Seems to run fine on mine, so I think that was just a drive limitation.

Awesome let us know. Oddly enough the PO'ed PS1 port has issues running on a PS2. Need to try that one in POPStarter & see if it somehow helps.

You lucked out with the Goldstar ODE being the best priced. Did you see my post over in this thread?
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=36353&start=220

Was curious where you or any other members actually purchased their 3DO ODE.

Bonez, did you get a new drive, considering ODE?

[nightrnr]

Posted on the other thread.

Yes, I bought my USB 3DO board directly from MNemo.